diff -up gnome-settings-daemon-2.23.6/plugins/xrandr/gsd-xrandr-manager.c.xrandr-missingok gnome-settings-daemon-2.23.6/plugins/xrandr/gsd-xrandr-manager.c
--- gnome-settings-daemon-2.23.6/plugins/xrandr/gsd-xrandr-manager.c.xrandr-missingok	2008-08-04 10:25:53.000000000 -0400
+++ gnome-settings-daemon-2.23.6/plugins/xrandr/gsd-xrandr-manager.c	2008-08-05 13:25:25.000000000 -0400
@@ -296,6 +296,12 @@ gsd_xrandr_manager_start (GsdXrandrManag
 {
         g_debug ("Starting xrandr manager");
 
+        if (manager->priv->rw_screen == NULL) {
+                g_set_error (error, 0, 0, "Failed to initialize XRandr extension");
+                return FALSE;
+        }
+ 
+
         manager->priv->running = TRUE;
         manager->priv->client = gconf_client_get_default ();